For two hours, Harry and Mia had been going over their preparations for the meeting. It was for all department hearts to essentially provide their feedback on how things were going at the company.

Despite being a senior member of the board and an executive, Harry was also the head of accounting, which mean he would too have to present.

Mia was nervous if they's managed to get everything completed. She was new to this, and Malerie hadn't exactly left her any notes to work with. Nonetheless, Mia tried to cram as much information as she could in her head, to support Harry.

The two of them took the lift up to the 17th floor, stepping into lobby, whilst Mia kept thinking that with each step the ground would swallow her up. It wasn't so much the meeting that was bothering her, as much who she knew had an office on this floor.

Harry led the way to the meeting room that they would usually hold the presentations and Mia followed him, not really knowing where she was going having never been on this floor before - not that she had much of a need to or wanted to.

As they approached the glass doors of the meeting room, Mia spotted a familiar face.

Stood just a few steps away from her was Richard Carter, and Mia was left wide-eyed.

She'd only ever seen him online or in magazines, never having the opportunity to meet the man in person. He looked a lot taller in real-life. His hair was still dark and full, it didn't really seem like he was a lot older, but with his peppered beard and wrinkles by his eyes, you could see the slight ageing.

Mia began to feel a lot more nervous, and gripped the laptop in her arms a lot more tighter in response.

When Richard turned, a wide smile came over his face, one that left Mia confused.

"Harry, you old dog. Still alive I see," Richard greeted his old friend, as soon as he spotted him.

Harry Nelson and Richard Carter went back a long way, being friends since high school. They grew out of touch, when the both went to different colleges, but after Richard started the company, Harry came to Richard for a job interview, and he was more than happy to help out his old friend.

Richard always knew that Harry had a knack for numbers and so offered him a role in accounting. After sometime, Harry became the Head of the Accounting Department and helped expand it, becoming responsible for employing all the personal in the accounting team.

"Better than you, you got one foot in a grave already," Harry joked back, and Mia was left wide-eyed at the response, unknown to the close relationship between the two.

"Bastard," Richard said with a smirk.

His gazed then fell onto Mia, who was standing next to Harry with a wide-eyed expression on her face, not unlike the 'deer caught in headlights' look. The glasses she had on, made her eyes look bigger and the expression all the more comical.

Harry then noticed Richard's line of sight, and turned towards Mia, also seeing the surprised look on her face. HE then realised their interaction must've been completely odd to Mia, and she'd never been introduced to her.

"Oh sorry, Mia," he spoke, and she turned to look at him. "This is Richard Carter, CEO and my good old friend."

Mia smiled and nodded politely.

"Richard, this is Mia Sareen. One of mine," Harry said proudly.

"Pleasure to meet you, Sir," Mia said, putting her hand forward.

Richard smiled at the girl's polite greeting and her gesture, and took her hand in his.

"Likewise," he said, shaking her hand.

Mia was surprised at Richard's gentle

handshake and just couldn't help but smile, thinking she was shaking the hand of the CEO of her company.

A look of confusion then came over Richard, and he looked towards Harry.

"What happened to Malerie?" Richard asked, remembering he had a different assistant at the previous board meetings.

"Off sick," Harry replied, "I have Mia to take over for the day, although she usually does assist me as it is," he laughed and Mia smiled at his words. Harry always made sure to give Mia credit, even when she didn't ask for it.

"I see," Richard hummed to himself.

He realised that Harry had mentioned Mia's name before, speaking of her quite often with nothing but praises and all the effort she'd put into her work, including helping him out when needed.

Richard couldn't help but think, maybe this girl could potentially be the assistant Sebastian would need when Sophie would go on maternity leave.

He knew how much Harry would go on about how good Mia was at her job which caused Richard to think, 'wasn't that something Sebastian was looking for in his assistant?'.

Harry recognised that look on Richard's face, and knew that he was thinking of something.

"Stop eyeing my assistant, get your own," Harry then said, snapping Richard out of his thoughts.

"Oh, sod off," Richard then replied with a laugh.

Mia was left thinking why Richard was looking at her like he knew something about her, or something that she did.

"Shall we?" Harry then looked to Mia, holding the door open of the meeting room for her. She nodded, smiling at him and walked in.

Harry and Mia took a seat at the table, discussing their notes. There was still time for the meeting to start, and Mia wanted to kale sure that everything was covered, and there were no mistakes. She'd hate to have embarrassed Harry with a mistake.

As the two of them discussed their presentation, Richard was watching Mia closely. He felt like he was watching Sebastian work, the same look of determination on her face as was with him.

When he heard someone walk in, Richard smiled seeing Sophie waddle her way into the meeting room and got up from his seat to help her.

"You're too kind," Sophie smiled as he helped her to her seat.

"It's nothing," Richard told her, taking her hand and carefully manoeuvring her to the seat beside him.

As Sophie sat down and began to swipe through her tablet, preparing herself, Richard glanced towards Mia again and grinned.

"Sophie, my dear," Richard then spoke, causing her to look at him.

"Yes?" She asked.

"You're looking for a replacement for yourself, whilst you're off on maternity leave right?" Richard questioned her, remembering that Sebastian left her in charge of the matter.

"Unfortunately, yes," she sighed.

She had grown increasingly tired, not just from the pregnancy, but also from the lack of suitable candidates.

There was one potential applicant that Sophie thought was good, however it turned they had lied on their CV, something that Sebastian was really not pleased about. Then there was some that were more into Sebastian than the job. It was exhausting sifting through it all.

"Don't pout, dear." Richard chuckled, seeing Sophie's unamused face. "I actually have someone in mind, if you want some help?"

Immediately a look of relief came over Sophie and she nodded frantically, as if Richard had given her a lifeline.

"You know the girl with Harry-" Richard gestured towards Mia, and Sophie looked in her direction. "I'm thinking she could be a fit. Harry's praised her on many occasions. Maybe you could just speak to her and see?" He then suggested.

Sophie glanced towards Mia again, her head tilting slightly as she was assessing her. Just from the look of her, Sophie thought she was sweet, especially from the way she was interacting with Harry.

Unlike the some of the other applicants Sophie had come across, she thought Mia at least look interested in her work. 'It couldn't hurt to talk to her', she then thought.

"Alright," Sophie nodded, and Richard smiled.

Before anything else could be said, the door to the meeting room opened once more and in walked Sebastian.

"Sorry about the wait, everyone. Let's begin shall we?" Sebastian then said, taking his seat at the head of the table and placing his laptop in front of him.

Mia wasn't entirely sure why she was surprised when Sebastian walked in, especially since she knew that this was going to be a department head meeting, including the executives - which Sebastian also was. However the expression on her face when he walked through those doors was pure shock.

In that moment, she wanted the ground to swallow her whole - or just for it to open up and taken Sebastian down. Either way, she didn't really want to be in his presence.

Mia moved her hair to the side as a curtain over her face, blocking anyone, well mainly someone, from seeing it.

She had to remind herself that she was here for Harry, to help him out, but it was hard when someone she thought was the devil incarnate was sat right there.

Mia had never really seen him like this before, the take-charge attitude he had. He was leading the meeting himself, with department heads answering to him. The manner in which he spoke, the questions he was asking each member, the surprisingly good suggestions he provided, it was odd to see for her.

She half expected him to not care.

Soon enough, it was Harry's turn to present, to discuss the findings of the accounting team, and problems they were also facing.

"In terms of the expenditure, the total amount for the Stripped account comes to..." Harry trailed off, realising he'd forgotten the exact amount.

"£12,000." Mia spoke up.

In that moment, all eyes turned to Mia, including Sebastian's.

His eyes narrowed in scrutiny, having not noticed her sitting there before, and even now he could barely see her face, her curls, which were resting across her shoulder, shielded her face from his view.

However, when Sebastian caught a glimpse of the brown-framed glasses that rested on the bridge of her nose, he realised it was her - the girl from the lift.

Sebastian couldn't help the way the twitch of his lips, seeing there sitting there in an almost frozen-like state. 'Twice in once day,' he thought to himself.

He felt like here was something oddly familiar about her, as if he'd known her from before, but couldn't quite place his finger on it.

Whilst Sebastian stared at Mia, she felt like her whole face was heating up, knowing that there were eyes on her. It was a usual reaction she had, especially when being at the centre of attention - something she despised.

She didn't turn her face or avert her eyes, only carrying on to look at Harry with her smile. She sat so still, as if moving would cause an issue, like ripples in the water.

"Thank you, Mia," Harry then smiled at her and she nodded back slightly.

Mia. Her name sounded so very familiar to Sebastian, he knew it, it was right there in his mind, yet it was like all memory surrounding it was weirdly locked away and he was having trouble finding the key.

When Harry carried on talking, Sebastian focused back onto the meeting at hand, and tried to concentrate once again, despite that nagging feeling still there.

"Right, well, I'll be speaking to the sales team, if there is nothing coming from the account, then I want it closed. I don't see a reason to continue spending a ridiculous amount, when there is no outcome. Thank you, Harry," Sebastian nodded. "Anything else?" He then asked.

Harry knew there was something else, but was lost in his thoughts, trying to remember.

"The Marketing Team, Sir. " Mia gave him a prompt one again.

"Right-" Harry nodded gratefully towards Mia and then looked back to Sebastian. "-They've requested money for one of their new campaigns. The charity walk."

Sebastian nodded in understanding. "Ah right I spoke to Sharon and Roger. I think it's a good thing to go with. The more we market, the more participants and all the more money which we can give to the chosen charities."

"Very well. I'll have it processed," Harry smiled.

Mia looked to Harry with a smile of her own, and he grinned at her, a silent gesture thanking her for the help.

After Harry, Sebastian led the meeting now going over some things of his own and whilst all eyes were on him at the time, Mia looked down at her notebook.

To anyone else it looked as if she were writing the whole time, when really she was avoiding eye contact and in her mind, she was hoping for this meeting to end soon.

Not too long after, the meeting finally ended and everyone was out of their seats, packing their things and talking amongst themselves.

Harry had told Mia that he was going to talk to Sebastian for a moment, to which she just nodded and waited outside the meeting room, not really wanting to be inside that room any longer than she had to.

As Mia stood by the wall, clutching ahold of her laptop and notebook in one hand, whilst the other held her phone, she heard someone clearing their throat.

Mia turned around to see a pretty blonde woman smiling at her.

Whilst everyone was busy talking amongst themselves, Sophie looked around for Mia. She thought it was a good time to talk to her, see if she could be a potential assistant for Sebastian.

She found Mia just outside the meeting room on her phone, and waddled her way over to her.

"Hi. I'm Sophie," she smiled.

Mia smiled back politely, albeit a little confused. "I'm Mia," she then replied.

"I just wanted to come over and say hi. You're Harry's assistant, yes?" She asked.

"Only for today," Mia informed her. "Just helping Harry out whilst his actual assistant is off sick for the day."

Sophie nodded. "Oh right. The girl with the pixie haircut," she said, remembering Harry's usual assistant. "I'm Sebastian's assistant."

Mia then had a moment of realisation. "Of course. It's nice to meet you. Harry's actually spoken about you before, wishing he had you for an assistant," she replied honestly.

She remembered hearing about Sophie before, from Harry, who would always express his admiration for her. She was apparently the best assistant in her business, according to him.

When it came to giving out praise and appreciation for someone who was worth it, Harry was always the first to speak up.

Harry was actually a family friend of the Carter's and therefore knew Sebastian since he was a child, also becoming his Godfather. He also knew that Sebastian wasn't the most easiest person to tolerate at times and was therefore even more appreciative of what Sophie did.

"Oh, he's too kind. Although in this state, I can barely assist anyone," Sophie joked, placing her hand on her growing stomach.

"How far along are you?" Mia asked.

"Seven and a half months, but I'm carrying twins, which makes me look like a bloated whale," Sophie said.

Mia could help but let out a laugh at the expression on Sophie's face. It was like the combined look of exhaustion and being completely fed up of something.

"You look great though. You're kind of glowing," Mia replied.

"It's actually sweat, but you're really sweet to say that," Sophie laugh, and Mia couldn't help but join in.

Sophie then carried on to speak to Mia as Sebastian was still busy inside the meeting room. She was quite happy to talk to Mia, finding her to be exactly someone she had been looking for.

"You did great, Son." Richard told his Sebastian proudly, patting his back.

Richard was so proud of the way that Sebastian had taken charge of the meeting, taking the reins like a true leader. He was so pleased with his approach.

He was also aware of the perception that some had to Sebastian, the reservations that he was still young and possibly immature, that he wouldn't know the business well. The view that he was only ablate get thus far sue to his familial connections, and not hard work.

However, that was far from the whole truth.

Sebastian smiled at the praise from his Dad. He was always happy to hear when his Dad was proud of him, it was more of an accomplishment than leading the meeting successfully.

"Thanks, Dad." He then nodded back. "Glad it went well."

"Would be a bit awkward if you had failed in front of everyone," Richard joked, and Sebastian shook his head.

"Well done, Seb."

When Sebastian turned around hearing the voice, he saw Harry grinning at him like a mad man.

"Thank you, Harry." He replied.

Sebastian eyes looked to the side of Harry, wondering if the girl that was sat next to him throughout the meeting, was with him too. However, he found Harry alone - he couldn't even see the girl in the room.

"Have a drink on me after the fine job you did today," Harry told him, looking to Sebastian and then towards Richard. He was feeling extremely proud of his Godson.

"I'll take you up on that," Sebastian let out a chuckle.

Harry and Richard began to have a quick little chat with other, and in that time Sebastian couldn't help but think, 'Why did that girl look so familiar?'.